could someone tell me why barren is still 22ft above summer pool?

[mkmsports41]

Barren is always the last of the lakes to get pulled down. Rough and Nolin get pulled down first. If they pulled all of them down at the same time the rivers could not handle it. They pulled Rough down and got it to a managable level and shut it down. Now they are dropping Nolin 1.5-2' a day. Once Nolin gets down to a "managable" level they will open the gates of Barren More. Plus Barren does not have the capability of pulling down like the other lakes. The lake is Currently dropping 2-3" a day. There is so much surface area covered it will be another month before we notice the 5-6" a day drop. Barring any major rains, mid July should be close to summer pool.

[Dizzle]

mmmm.. yeah.. plus the State Park ramp is still closed, which made for quite a scene at the Narrows yesterday afternoon...

[olgreenboat]

I'm pretty sure they slowed the release down for the week end..
Green river lake barren nolin and rough river all feed into green river so if they open them all wide open it would be really bad.
Here is whats going on right now.
[COLOR=#810081]Green River[/COLOR]668.0675.0713.0[COLOR=#810081]681.2[/COLOR]6.2-0.80.004652
[COLOR=#0000ff]Nolin [/COLOR]490.0515.0560.0[COLOR=#0000ff]529.5[/COLOR]14.5-2.00.009517
[COLOR=#810081]Barren River[/COLOR]525.0552.0590.0[COLOR=#810081]574.0[/COLOR]22.0-0.20.003133
[COLOR=#0000ff]Rough River[/COLOR]475.0495.0524.0[COLOR=#810081]511.9[/COLOR]16.9-0.20.001295

Nolin is dumping the most our righ now and i think that is a little wierd since rough river only has 4.47 inches avilable wich means if they get 5 inches of rain it will be going thru the emergency spillway again..

There still getting a lot of rain up north and the whole mississippi river is still under a flood warning .,

For us prime time fish has pretty much come and gone and all we can do is hope for a better spring and lower gas prices next year.

[Olgrey]

At it's high point this year it got to 25.9 feet over summer pool; whereas last year Barren got to 26.1 feet over summer pool. It was dropping .2 to .3 feet per day, but this last rain slowed the drop and actually raised the water level about half a foot over a 3 day period. It is now at 22 feet over summer pool so it has actually dropped almost 4 feet from the high point. Given that Barren River eventually runs into Green it appears to always be the last lake of the three (Nolin, Green, & Barren) to be dropped to normal levels.

[Basswipe]

The answer is very simple. Ask any worker of the Corps of Engineers and they will give you the same answer:

These are flood control lakes. Their purpose is to control flooding. Things like fishing, boating, camping, cabins and lakefront property are simply seconday benefits. None of them will ever interfere with the flood control purpose of the lake.

Someone, somewhere in the COE has determined that Barren needs to hold back water right now for flood control purposes.

[Ranger1979]

The above response is correct. I'd like to add that downstream flooding needs to be taken into consideration. At the release rate that Barren is experiencing now, several farms in the Warren County area are spared from flooding. A higher release would flood some fields, you can notice this while driving over Barren River on I-65 between exits 26 and 28 by looking at how close the river is to flooding that field as well as the one adjacent to the 101 bridge crossing. The Corps will increase discharge when crop season is not in effect. I imagine that the current release will stay consistent until the lake reaches summer pool.

[smashdn]

The corps bought upstream easements for flooding but not downstream easements. Got to keep it in its banks downstream.

Keep hoping for hot and dry weather to get it back down.

I am curious as to what the banks will end up looking like in a few years. Last years flooding killed quite a few trees along the bank. These trees whose root systems hold the soil in place and keep it out of the lake. Will more trees dieing eventually cause the steeper banks to slough off into the lake? Is wave action going to further beat up the banks?

[bassmanshawn]

id say lots trees will fall in water more cover lol

[FlyLie]

thinking this thread has been beat to ....... Time to let it go!